N.J.'s economic output slipped in 2011, according to U.S. stats

TRENTON — New Jersey's economic output shrank last year, ranking 47th out of all the 50 states in terms of growth and outperforming only Alabama, Mississippi and Wyoming.

The Garden State's gross domestic product — its share of the U.S. GDP — decreased 0.5 percent in 2011, one of six states that registered a negative rate of growth, according to data released by the U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday.

It was the only state economy in the Mideast region — which includes Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. — that shrank, according to the data.

The state GDP rose 1.5 percent in 2010, but it decreased 4.8 percent in 2009 during the height of the financial crisis.

Gov. Chris Christie has been touting a "Jersey Comeback" this year, saying the economic climate has improved and that businesses are beginning to look favorably at New Jersey as the regulatory landscape becomes easier to navigate and as the state restrains budgets, borrowing and pension liabilities. Those developments, he said, have made it possible to enact an income tax cut this year.

But Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald (D-Camden), who along with colleagues in the Assembly is pushing a 20 percent property tax cut that would be financed by a higher tax on millionaires, said the new data were "very, very concerning" in a statement Wednesday.

"Governor Christie needs to take a long hard look at these numbers and hold himself accountable for the fact that nearly every other state enjoying more economic output than New Jersey," he said "New Jersey is, in fact, actually losing ground.”